Embodiments disclosed herein relate to remittance systems, domestic and cross-border alike. In particular, some embodiments relate to methods, apparatus, systems, means and computer program products for implementing a remittance system.
The total annual volume of person-to-person remittances is measured in the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars (including transactions that involve U.S. dollars and transactions that do not involve U.S. dollars) and is increasing from year to year.
Formal commercial remittance channels are generally labor-intensive and expensive to use. Informal channels for remittances are also labor-intensive and may not provide adequate protection for the funds remitted. Many of the people who make or receive remittances are not wealthy and can ill-afford the costs and risks presented by conventional remittance channels.
More generally, senders and recipients of remittances frequently find conventional remittance channels to be time-consuming and inconvenient. It is not unusual for the sender to be required to bring cash to a store operated by a remittance services provider (RSP). Accordingly, the sender is constrained to accommodate himself or herself to the store's operating hours, must carry cash on his or her person, and may have to wait in line or otherwise experience poor service at the RSP's store. The recipient also may be required to travel to an RSP's store to pick up the remitted funds, thereby possibly suffering the same disadvantages and inconveniences that the sender was subject to.
It has previously been proposed to utilize a payment card system as the “backbone” of a person-to-person remittance system. A very well known and extremely extensive payment card system is operated by the assignee hereof—MasterCard International Inc.—in conjunction with its member financial institutions (FIs). A remittance system which uses a payment card system as its processing backbone is likely to offer cost-effectiveness and convenience that go far beyond what is provided by traditional remittance channels. Specific examples of payment-card-system-based remittance systems are described, for example, in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/836,956, filed Aug. 10, 2007 and Ser. No. 11/951,043, filed Dec. 5, 2007. These applications are both assigned to the assignee hereof, are incorporated herein by reference, and have been published as U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2008/0249929 and 2008/0249935, respectively.
One of the benefits of basing a remittance system on a payment card system is that a large number of financial institutions may be members of the payment card system and so may readily become participants in providing remittance services that use the payment card system. It may also be the case that other service providers, such a mobile telephone network operators or providers of financial services that are not financial institutions, may act as gateways to the remittance system. The present inventor has recognized the desirability of providing improved interoperability among FIs and non-FI service providers in order to facilitate expansion and operation of a remittance system that is based on a payment card system. Said FIs and non-FIs can operate the remittance system pursuant to their own licenses, liability and funds risk. The payment card system facilitates their easy connection to one another and efficient processing of funds transfers for them.